Oak Bay, British Columbia, rated #3 in the 2017 MoneySense.com “best places in Canada” rankings
Our 2015 review of the “best places to live in Canada” rankings from MoneySense.com has consistently been our most-visited page.
The rankings, now updated for 2017, emerge from a complicated formula that combines weather, local employment and incomes, crime rates, tax rates and much else. Continue reading
Premier Clark, centre, with B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Morris and Surrey police
On April 15, 2016, Premier Christy Clark of British Columbia announced a $23 million dollar boost to its “Guns and Gangs” strategy in response to the “frequency and public nature of recent gang shootings.”
The money is to go wherever it’s needed, but the first-named community in the government announcement and the TV reports was Surrey. Periodic violence in Surrey has overshadowed other news from B.C.’s second-largest city at least since the 2014 local election campaign. On April 18, CTV News published an interactive map showing the locations of 33 shootings that had taken place in Surrey since New Year’s Day. Continue reading
Oceanfront houses, Delta
[This post refers to the MoneySense.ca community rankings for 2015. We posted a link to the updated rankings in July, 2017.]
MoneySense.ca, “Canada’s top personal finance magazine,” has posted a list of the “Best Places to Live” in Canada, ranking 209 cities and towns on a 103-point scale.
Top marks for 2015 go to Boucherville, Quebec, a south-shore suburb of Montreal, while New Glasgow in Nova Scotia comes last, making it either the 209th-Best or the Worst Place to Live in Canada. Continue reading
As of July 1, all affected B.C. municipalities have signed on to a new 20-year policing contract with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Some local leaders remain fearful that the new deal exposes local taxpayers to surprise cost increases.
I have a different concern (predictably): could this contract have done a better job of enabling local input on policing practices? Is that option still open to us? Continue reading
Fraseropolis 